The Second Ward

by Robert DeCoteau

Jason is a confused young man who was abandoned by his parents at a mental hospital at the age of nine. He struggles with a reoccurring nightmare that may just be the key to finding his sanity.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

ebook

First published March 22, 2011

About the author

Robert DeCoteau
I was born in 1974 in Bremerton, Washington. I moved to Bellingham, Washington at the age of four and have been here ever since.
I love living in the Pacific Northwest about two months out of the year. The other ten months it rains.
Constant rain gives me plenty of time to read and write. While I'm hooked on writing horror right now, I enjoy many other genres.
My favorite author is Robin Hobb, who also lives in the northwest. She is the award winning Fantasy author of Assassin's Apprentice and several sequels.
I have one son. I named him Chance. He is six going on fifteen. We are both currently enrolled in school, but I am a few grades ahead of him.

Reviews

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Info: Genre: Horror short
Reading Level: Young Adult
Recommended for: People who enjoy a suspenseful story that isn't what it seems to be.

My Thoughts: I ended up quite liking this short story, which is mostly set in a psychiatric hospital, so it gave me that extra little delicious shiver over being “trapped” in such a place. However, unlike many books of its ilk, the hospital is not populated completely by psychos, nor are the patients drugged out of their minds. But it is there, so I liked that bit.

The only problem with it was that it could have used another editing pass, as there were a lot of errors scattered throughout the book. As an example, a noise was “to loud to bare”, which should have been “too loud to bear”. Missing commas abound as well, leading to run-on sentences that are hard to follow as a result.

However, overall I quite enjoyed the story, especially the twist ending. If you're looking for something bite-sized, see if you can find this one.

Disclosure: I don't remember exactly when I picked this up, but I believe it was a freebie on Barnes & Noble. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: Jason is a confused young man who was abandoned by his parents at a mental hospital at the age of nine. He struggles with a reoccurring nightmare that may just be the key to finding his sanity.

[Beckimoody Moody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice twist ending. This story features a young man who can remember nothing outside of the mental hospital where he now resides. Strangely enough, he keeps dreaming about a car crash with realistic details, even though he never learned to drive and should know nothing about the things in his dream. It was an intriguing puzzle, and the character was sympathetic enough that you wanted him to succeed.

[JoAnn J. A. Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting tale of a young man, a mental ward, and an accident. The story is well written with a few editorial mistakes which don't detract from the coherence.

I enjoyed this story and recommend it highly.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jason Lincoln is 17. He's been in a mental institution since the age of 9. Why, then, is he dreaming about high school, his drivers' ed teacher, popular songs and driving a car? Maybe all isn't what it seems.
Short story with a nice twist.

[James Crawford · Rating 1 out of 5]

A guy named Jason is in a mental ward. He's been there at least eight years, apparently, starting at age 9. . He's 17, but in his nightmares he was a grown adult. His parents no longer bother to visit him in the ward.

One of the interns has been checking on some things Jason had seen in his dream and finds out they are real, including a teacher he mentioned, a particular film and a page from a book, yet all these were from a time five years on when Jason would be 22.

Joe helps him escape, but Jason wakes up to find reality to be much worse then he expected.

[Nenette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a good story, I should say. It presents a form of escapism for one who has gone through a traumatic experience; and with all the mysteries surrounding the human mind, I think it is very plausible. I appreciate the twist at the end, but I would have liked it better if there were more of “what happened next”. But I guess the author left it for the book clubs to discuss. Another good discussion point would be the representation of the other characters at Greenlawn.

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent short story! I look forward to more works from this author. The ending is a shocker but not really if you think about it, I won't write about it here as it will really spoil it for others & ruin the story, but let me tell you it's really worth reading. I would just say don't read it before you go to bed. Right now this story is free on kindle so take advantage of this debut e-author.

[Ari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this book for free for my kindle, didn't realize how short it was til I flew through it today - only 84 pages. I thought it was just okay... it sucked me in but it was far too short for my liking and the end was just eh. The twist was something that had been done before and therefore I wasn't as surprised by it as maybe the author wanted. Ah well.

[Roseann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I normally am not a big short story fan, but this novella was pretty good. I generally am upset when I get to the end of a good story and then there is an abrupt ending like the author just wanted to quit. This one has a good twist which most readers will not see coming. A great free read on Kindle and I look forward to more from this author.

[Klaudyna Z. · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only word that comes to mind about this short story would be that it was stupid. I felt like there was no substance to the book, and it was just leading you on. I wish I hadn't wasted the half an hour that it took to read this.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very nice short story, well written and I am not a shot story kinda person but I have to say this one captured me from the start. The ending was an interesting twist but I kind of saw it coming. This reminded me of The Gargoyle.

[George the Girl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really quick read. The twist was a little predictable, but worth the ride to wait for. Overall, it was worth my time and I enjoyed it. It was, maybe a little to short. Besides, it was free.

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't realize this was a short story when I downloaded it to my kindle. I was kind of disappointed because I wanted more to the story and it ended rather abruptly.

[Trish Bodine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly well-written book. It kept me guessing until the end of the story. There were a few spelling (flea instead of flee, for example), but not enough to negate the pleasure of this story.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gotta say I loved this story. Very well written and even though I should have seen where it was going...I didn't. I'm looking for more by this author.

[Doreena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued... It was a very well written read. Did not see the ending coming at all! Well done!

[Jessica Van Vleet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story! I'm glad I downloaded it. Worth the short read.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short and interesting enough but not really very exciting or thrilling or all that mysterious. The twist was unexpected but it just wasn't enough to give this any more stars.

[Lokhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little confusing at first, but pretty good overall. Recommended if you're sitting at the doctor's office waiting to be seen because it's pretty short and can be read in less than an hour.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was confused through the first 3/4 of the story. I felt like I was missing something. Well I was, I just didn't know it. This would have been better with more background/story to flesh it out.

[Arielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, fast read!

Very succinctly wrapped up, great story line. Who is to say this couldn't be 100% accurate in a - well I don't want to give it away

[Lori Petticrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

fantastic, still the turn

[Kitty Whiskers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Predictable